Process of weight filling of containers



PROCESS OF WEIGHT FILLING OF CONTAINERS Filed April 13, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 BY #MM qw Feb. 19, 1957 R. M. MAGNUSON 2,781,993

PROCESS OF WEIGHT FILLING OF CONTAINERS Filed April 13, 1951 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 RIM Bel

INVENTOR. ROY M MAGNUSON A T TORNE V United States Patent PROCESS OF WEIGHT FILLING F CONTAINERS Roy M. Magnuson, Campbell, Calif.

Application April 13, 1951, Serial No. 220,932

' Claims. (Cl. 249--18) The present invention relates to the weight filling of containers with discrete articles, such as olives, prunes, and the like, where the weight of the material within the container usually must be overweight by a part of the weight of one unit and where overweight filling in excess of one unit results in loss of yield in the packing operation.

It is the general object of the invention to provide a new method of weight filling of containers whereby the containers are always filled to the desired amount, i. e., to a desired net weight within the weight range of a single unit in a continuous and advantageous manner.

Another object of the invention is to provide a process of the abovecharacter in which the material or units of material are all flowing continuously toward the containers and at no time is there a holding zone where a part of the material can remain indefinitely, whereby the method is particularly adapted to the hot filling of articles, for example, prunes.

The above and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description of a preferred method of carrying out the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a weight filling apparatus which may be employed for carrying out the process of this invention;

Figure 2 is a sideelevational view looking from the bottom of the view shown in Figure 1, with certain parts illustrated schematically; and

Figure 3 is adetail 'elevational view illustrating one of the weighing-units shown in Figures 1 and 2.

In general, 'the method of this invention comprises the establishing of a flow of the material to be filled as an indiscriminately arranged mass and in approximately the proper amount required with respect to a simultaneous flow of containers which is established in conjunction with the flow of material. The fiow of material to be filled has a portion diverted to coincidence with the file of containers for underfilling of the containers to a desired degree, preferably within the weight of from 1 to 6 units of the material by weight. This diverted flow of the material is filled into the containers, for example, by hand filling operation, and the undiverted flow of material is carried into a single filling means wherea plurality of parallel files of the units of the material are provided for a unit-by-unit feed into the partially filled containers. This unit-by-unit feed is positioned in, an intersecting relation with respect to the path of movement of the containers in a final weight fillingzone so that a unit from each of the parallel files can be placed successively in each container passing through this zone. The timing of the unit-by-unit feed of the individual parallel files is related to the timing of movement of the containers so that a series of containers is presented simultaneously to the discharge ends of these parallel files and each container may receive a unit of material therefrom. Preferably the single filing of the material or units of material into these 2,781,993 Patented Feb. 19, 1957 individual files is accompanied by an excess flow of units from the discharge ends thereof and this excess is returned to join with the first diverted portion of the material in the preliminary underfilling operation.

As an underfilled container enters the weight filling Zone, it is carried by a weighing unit so that as it receiVes an individual unit of material from the discharge end of each path of single file flow, its weight is increased by the weight of this unit and when the proper weight has been obtained in a container, subsequent discharges of the succeeding single file paths with respect to this container are diverted and returned with the excess fiow from the single filing means to the underfilling portion of the apparatus.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, the apparatus there illustrated includes a belt-type material conveyor 10 and a belt-type can conveyor 11 which carry the respective flows of material and cans into the processing zones including an underweight filling Zone in which a rotary hand type filler 12 is located and a unit-by-unit weight filling zone in which a weight type filling unit 13 is provided. This apparatus is disclosed and claimed in copending application Serial No. 220,933 of Roy M. Magnuson and Traver J. Smith, filed April 13, 1951, for Apparatus for Weight Filling of Containers. A portion of the material carried on the conveyor 10 is diverted by a gate 14 to a transversely extending belt-type conveyor 16 which discharges into the center of the rotary hand filler 12.

The filler 12 is of conventional construction and consists of a rotary table 36 spaced below an upper hopper 57 which rotates therewith and is provided with a series of spaced apertures 12a. The cans 17 are moved by the conveyor 11 between the guide rails 41 to the transfer disc 39 and they are placed in properly spaced relation on the table 36 beneath the apertures 12a. The operator merely scoops material from the central portion of the hopper into the apertures 12a to cause a desired approximate amount of the material to fall into the aligned containers.

The cans 17 are underfilled by weight in the underfilling zone in which the rotary hand filler 12 is located. As the table 36 of this filler rotates the underfilled cans are brought to the rails 42 and guided thereby to the rotating transfer disc 18 which carries them to the star wheel 19 and the support plate 19a associated therewith. The star wheel 19 in turn moves each can 17 into proper aligned relation with respect to the associated weighing unit of the weight filling unit 13 as will be described hereinafter.

The portion of the unit material conveyed on the belt conveyor 1i which is not diverted by the gate 14 onto the conveyor 16, is carried by the conveyor 10 toward the gate 21 and is diverted by this gate 21 onto a first stage shufile feed mechanism 22. The mechanism 22 has at its discharge end a barrier or wall 23 having a plurality of openings 24 therein through which the material is divided into a plurality of individual feeds and fed onto a second stage or single filing type shufile feeder 25 which is divided into six parallel sections by partitions 26. The wall 23 is provided with six openings 24, one opening corresponding to each of the six parallel sections in the single filing feeder 25. Each of these parallel sections has the blades thereof positioned in the bottom thereof, inclined to the horizontal and angled transversely of the path of travel of the units of material. In their progress through these parallel sections said units of material are urged by these blades toward a side wall 26 of the respective parallel section and moved along this wall to the corresponding discharge opening 27 associated with the respective parallel section as described in detail in Patent No. 2,728,443 for Shufile Feed Mechanisms, issued December 27, 1955 to the owner of the present application. The openings 27 are each of a size topass a single individual unit of the material only. These openings provide exits from the lower right hand corners of these parallel sections, as shown in Figure l, into flexible discharge chutes 28 shown in Figure 2.

The operation of the single filing shufile feed mech anism is such that a timed unit-by-unit single file feed of the material is provided from each of these openings 27. Thus each time the shufile-feed mechanism operates, a unit of the material is discharged from each of said openings at the ends of the six individual and parallel single filing sections.

The weight filling unit 13 (Figures 1 and 2) comprises a base 51 on which a rotary turret 52 is journalled for constant rotation in the usual manner. This turret 52 is driven synchronously with the table 36 of the hand filler 12 in any convenient manner. A plurality of peripherally spaced weighing units 53, one of which is shown in detail in Figure 3, are supported by U-shaped brackets 54 around the peripheral portion of the turret 52. Each U-shaped bracket 54 pivotally supports a pivot shaft 56 upon which a weight or scale lever 57 is mounted. An inwardly and radially projecting balance arm 58 is attached to the lever 57 and this arm is threaded to receive an adjustable weight 59 thereon. At its free end each arm 58 has jourualled thereon a roller 61 for cooperation with a cam mechanism or track 62.

Each lever 57 also includes an upwardly extending boss 63 into which there is threaded a shaft extension 64 carrying a control roller 66 on its horizontally bent upper portion. A bifurcated arm 68 is provided to the outer end of the scale lever 57 for the purpose of supporting the pivot studs 69 which engage the filling ring or collar 71 of the container support means. The collar 71 is provided with opposite downwardly extending can supporting arms 72 terminating in respective flat bottom pads 73 to which can lift plates or elements 74 are detachably secured. The collars 71 are disposed in outboard relation to the turret 52.

As the turret 52 and the star wheel 19 are rotated with respect to each other, partially filled cans 17 are moved by said star wheel into position between the can engaging lips 77 of the weighing units 53 as these weighing units 53 are presented one after another to said star wheel. The partially filled cans 17 received by the weighing units 53 are carried by the turret 52 around to the unit-by-unit weight filling zone where the underfilled cans receive one or more units of material to fill them to or slightly in excess of the desired weight.

la the unit-by-unit weight filling zone, units of the material are discharged from the discharge ends of the single filing shuffle feed mechanisms in timed relation with respect to the operation of the shuflle feed mechanism so that the row of containers 17 presented to the said discharge ends will each receive one or more units of material from one or more of said discharge ends until the appropriate weight has been reached by each container. Thereafter subsequent single unit feeds are bypassed and the excess units of material do not enter the filled containers.

The excess material which is carried through these single filing sections to insure continuous single filing without interruption, passes onto a ramp 29 and a transverse belt-conveyor 30, as will be described hereinafter. The conveyor 30 discharges onto an elevating flight type conveyor 31 whose discharge end overlies the conveyor 16, so that the units of the excess material are added to the material supplied to the underfilling zone. the weight filling units of the unit-by-unit weight filling mechanism 13 is tripped when an appropriate number of units have been added to the container carried thereby to exceed the desired net weight within the container. The subsequent discharges through the succeeding chutes 28 are then diverted onto the ramp 29 for return by the Each of conveyor 31 to the underfilling zone as described above and for this purpose the chutes 28 are provided with suitable movable end members that will now be described.

Each flexible discharge chute 28 (Figure 3) is connected at its lower end to a collar 85 that is attached to a frame member 86 which has spaced-apart support plates 87 depending therefrom. Pivotally mounted at 88 in the respective plates 87 is a movable end chute member 89 having its discharge end positioned over the path of travel of the collars 71. Each member 89 has a rearward cam surface 91 associated with a pin 92 carried by a lever 93 that is pivotally supported in the plates 87 by the pivot 94. The lever 93 has an outwardly extending L-shaped arm 96 terminating in a cam end 97 that lies in the path of a roller 66 when the latter is moved to its dotted line position. From the above description, it will be seen that when a can 17 is underweight and the control roller 66 is in its full line position, shown in Figure 3, then the lower movable end portion or chute member 89 of the discharge chute 28 remains in alignment with the end of a related can weighing unit 53 so that a unit of the fruit or other article being filled will go into the can 17 aligned therewith. However, if a unit from one chute 28 fills the can to an overweight condition, the can weighing unit tilts rapidly to move the control roller 66 from its full line position in Figure 3 to its dotted line position so that it will engage the cam end 97 of the subsequent unit fill station and the chute member 89 thereof will be tilted from the position shown in full lines in Figure 3 to the dotted line position. As a result, the unit fed at the time the overweight container 17 is associated with this particular filling station will be discharged on to the ramp 29 rather than being placed in the container.

As the result of this operation, an underweight container will continue to receive a single unit feed as it passes each unit filling station until it becomes overweight and then the remaining unit feeds, with respect to this particular overweight container, will be diverted or bypassed back to the underweight filling zone and the can will receive no further units. The containers which are filled to the desired weight are released from the weight filling mechanism onto a discharge belt 32 while containers which for one reason or another may still be underweight are carried past the conveyor 32 and discharged onto an underweight discharge conveyor 33 for recycling through the proces at a desired time.

From the above description, it will be seen that the process provides for proper weight filling of cans with units of material with the last unit of material placed in the cans bringing the net weight of the contents to the desired net weight or an amount exceeding the net weight by less than the weight of one unit of material.

Also the process is a continuous one wherein a continuously moving file of the material to be filled and a continuously moving file of containers are fed into the process, and in the same continuous fashion con tainers filled to the proper net weight result from the process. Any overflow material is recirculated within the proces so that the process is adaptable to products which require hot filling or with which hot filling is desirable.

While in the description reference has been made to the use of cans, it is obvious that other types of con tainers can be employed equally as well and that the method can also be carried out with the use of containers for subsequent filling into bag or with bag supporting containers carried through the process.

Where carrier containers are employed, either as bag supports, or for temporary carrying of the product until subsequent transfer to the final package or can, it is desirable to make the carrier containers to an exact uniform weight. This avoids any influence of differences in the container weights on the net weight filling of the contents, which is desirable, particularly with products Where the net Weight is light, nut meats, for example. The word container, as employed in the description and claims, is used generally and applies to all forms of container, whether the final form of package or merely a carrier.

While I have described a preferred method of carrying out the invention, it will be apparent that the invention is capable of variation and modification, so that its scope should be limited only by the proper scope of the claims attached hereto.

1 claim:

17 The methodof filling containers to a desired net weight content with material of a character having units of measurable size and weight which comprises establishing a flow of material to be filled, establishing a flow of containers and carrying the container through an underfilling zone and a unit-by-unit Weight filling zone, diverting a part the flow of material into the underfiiling zone and underfilling containers therein, transmitting the remainder of the flow of material and establishing a plurality of parallel unit-by-unit files of the material progressing in a timed relation to the progress of the container through the Weight filling zone, bringing a series of the containers simultaneously into register with the discharge ends of the unit-by-unit files and successively plac-' ing a unit feed into each container until the desired Weight is reached, and thereafter diverting any subsequent unitby-unit feed with respect to a container filled to the desired weight.

2. The method of filling containers to a desired net weight content with material of a character having units of measurable size and weight which comprises establishing a flow of material to be filled, establishing a flow of containers and carrying the container through an underfillin zone and a unitby-unit weight filling zone, diverting a part of the flow of material into the underfilling zone and underfilling containers therein, transmitting the remainder of the flow of material and establishing a plurality of parallel unit-by-unit files of the material pro gressing in a timed relation to the progress of the containers through the weight filling zone, bringing a series of the containers simultaneously into register with the discharge end of the unit-by-unit files, and successively placing a unit feed into each container until the desired Weight is reached, and thereafter diverting any subsequent unitby-unit feed with respect to a container filled to the desired Weight and returning the diverted unit-by-unit feed to a flow of said material.

3. The method of filling containers to a desired net Weight content with material of a character having units of measurable size and weight which comprises establishing a flow of material to be filled, establishing a flow of containers and carrying the containers through an underfilling zone and a unit-by-unit Weight filling zone, diverting a part of the flow of material into the underfilling zone and underfilling containers therein, transmitting the remainder of the flow of material and establishing a plurality of parallel unit-by-unit files of the material progressing in a timed relation to the progress of the containers through the weight filling zone, bringing a container successively into register with the discharge ends of said unit-by-unit files, and successively placing a unit feed into each container until the desired weight is reached, and thereafter diverting any subsequent unitby-unit feed from said files with respect to a container filled to the desired Weight.

4. The method of filling containers to a desired net weight content with material of a character having units of measurable size and weight which comprises establishing a flow of material to be filled, establishing a flow of containers and carrying the containers through an underfilling zone and a unit-by-unit weight filling zone, diverting a part of the flow of material into the underfilling zone and underfilling containers therein, transmitting the remainder of the fiow of material and establishing a plurality of parallel unit-by-unit files of the material progressing in a timed relation to the progress of the containers through the weight filling zone by establishing an excess flow of material for each file and diverting the excess over and above the amount required for a single file, bringing a container successively into register with the discharge ends of said unit-by-unit files, and successively placing a unit feed into each container until the desired weight is reached, and thereafter diverting any subsequent unit-by-unit feed from said files with respect to a container filled to the desired Weight.

5. The method of filling containers to a desired net weight content with material of a character having units of measurable size and weight, which comprises establishing respective continuous flows of containers and material, directing a portion of the material into coincidence with the flow of containers, under filling the containers with the material in an under filling zone, transmitting the remaining How of material to a single filing zone which is partially coincident with the path of containers, etlecting a unit-by-unit feed of material to the containers as they travel through said last mentioned zone, diverting said nnit-by-unit feed with respect to a container after feeding of the unit which causes the contents of the container to reach or exceed the desired net weight, and directing the units of diverted material from the unit-byunit feed to the flow to the under filling zone.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 720,008 Doble Feb. 10, 1903 992,148 Bates May 16, 1911 1,300,274 Jeiieries Apr. 15, 1919 1,345,864 Lethern July 6, 1920 1,602,578 Ingram Oct. 12, 1926 1,713,575 Warwick May 21, 1929 2,137,334 Dorrington Nov. 22, 1935 2,077,152 NoWak Apr. 13, 1937 2,186,471 Beede Jan. 9, 1940 2,198,788 Popov Apr. 30, 1940 2,451,534 Christensen Oct. 19, 1948 2,496,019 Peel Jan. 31, 1950 2,502,380 Howard Mar. 28, 1950 2,603,443 Miller July 15, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 302,366 Great Britain May 14, 1930 501,117 Great Britain Feb. 21, 1939 

